They didn’t. They used tenders, skiffs, ship-to-shore ferries, etc. to get from the dock to the ship too big for the dock.
Here’s the wiki page for the SS Nomadic, which was the tender to get people onto the Titanic- it’s still out there and can be toured as a museum in Belfast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Nomadic_(1911)
SevaraB t1_jeg6jd1 wrote
Reply to ELI5: How do large ships parked themselves at docks before invention of tug boats? by crenshawcrane
They didn’t. They used tenders, skiffs, ship-to-shore ferries, etc. to get from the dock to the ship too big for the dock.
Here’s the wiki page for the SS Nomadic, which was the tender to get people onto the Titanic- it’s still out there and can be toured as a museum in Belfast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Nomadic_(1911)